Apple AirTag - The £25 Car tracker with no subscription!
Discussion
I've recently delved into the world of Apple products switching from an Android phone and Windows Laptop to an iPhone and iMac. Something that caught my eye, is their new Apple AirTag product. With money seemingly burning a hole in my pocket I decided to try them out.
Pack of 4 was £85 on eBay with a 15% off code, split the pack with family so paid just over £20 for one.
What are they?
A small disc about the size of a 50p, with a battery that lasts a year and is replaceable.
How does it work?
As I understand it, the AirTag has no GPS connection - instead, it relies on the huge ecosystem of Apple products to relay its signal to the Apple servers. For instance, if you have it as a key ring and lose your keys in a high street, every time someone with an iPhone walks past it the location will be relayed to you in your Find My app. Interestingly it seems to show you the location of the device that identified it, not the location of the item itself although it will be within the vicinity.
How do you use it as a car tracker?
Easy - Hide it in your car (Sun visor clip, glove box, boot, etc) - That's it. You now have a tracker in your car that has no subscription.
I've been doing some testing, I was recently 150 miles away from my car and saw regular updates from neighbour's Apple devices showing that the car was still at home. It shows the car as being in people's bedrooms/on the road immediately outside presumably as a phone in a car driving past connected with it. You'll see something along the lines of 'Location updated 20 minutes ago'.
Notes:
-If your car or item is in the middle of nowhere and there is no Apple Device nearby you will not know it has moved
-I don't think you can follow it live in the same way you'd expect a tracker to work - but I haven't tested that. Instead I would expect periodic updates.
-You can put it in a lost mode to notify you as soon as it's located - You can also set it to show a message if it is recovered by another Apple user such as your contact details
-There is a chime built into it that you can activate from your phone and a compass UI helps you find it once you get closer.
-If you put it in someone else's car without their permission, if it connected to their phone and not yours it will sound a chime so that the driver is aware they are being tracked. If you're with them, it won't do so.
Overall, for the sake of £20-25 I think it's an absolute bargain. Because it's so portable you can easily chuck it in your golf clubs, suitcases, etc when travelling and put it back in the car later.
Pack of 4 was £85 on eBay with a 15% off code, split the pack with family so paid just over £20 for one.
What are they?
A small disc about the size of a 50p, with a battery that lasts a year and is replaceable.
How does it work?
As I understand it, the AirTag has no GPS connection - instead, it relies on the huge ecosystem of Apple products to relay its signal to the Apple servers. For instance, if you have it as a key ring and lose your keys in a high street, every time someone with an iPhone walks past it the location will be relayed to you in your Find My app. Interestingly it seems to show you the location of the device that identified it, not the location of the item itself although it will be within the vicinity.
How do you use it as a car tracker?
Easy - Hide it in your car (Sun visor clip, glove box, boot, etc) - That's it. You now have a tracker in your car that has no subscription.
I've been doing some testing, I was recently 150 miles away from my car and saw regular updates from neighbour's Apple devices showing that the car was still at home. It shows the car as being in people's bedrooms/on the road immediately outside presumably as a phone in a car driving past connected with it. You'll see something along the lines of 'Location updated 20 minutes ago'.
Notes:
-If your car or item is in the middle of nowhere and there is no Apple Device nearby you will not know it has moved
-I don't think you can follow it live in the same way you'd expect a tracker to work - but I haven't tested that. Instead I would expect periodic updates.
-You can put it in a lost mode to notify you as soon as it's located - You can also set it to show a message if it is recovered by another Apple user such as your contact details
-There is a chime built into it that you can activate from your phone and a compass UI helps you find it once you get closer.
-If you put it in someone else's car without their permission, if it connected to their phone and not yours it will sound a chime so that the driver is aware they are being tracked. If you're with them, it won't do so.
Overall, for the sake of £20-25 I think it's an absolute bargain. Because it's so portable you can easily chuck it in your golf clubs, suitcases, etc when travelling and put it back in the car later.
Edited by joropug on Thursday 9th September 11:07
agree and have thought about buying those, thank you for reminding me. My cars are usually not anywhere in my vicinity and I do not see them for extended periods of time, so this would give me a little more comfort that they are still where they are supposed to be. back on my list now
joropug said:
-If you put it in someone else's car without their permission, if it connected to their phone and not yours it will sound a chime so that the driver is aware they are being tracked. If you're with them, it won't do so.
This is the flaw in the plan. If a thief is in your car and has an iPhone, after a while they will be told that an Airtag is near them. They can then search for and destroy the AirTag or inhibit it https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227
For the money though, it is well worth doing, but an insurer won’t treat this as an approved tracker if you need one.
595Heaven said:
This is the flaw in the plan. If a thief is in your car and has an iPhone, after a while they will be told that an Airtag is near them. They can then search for and destroy the AirTag or inhibit it
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227
For the money though, it is well worth doing
Yes definitely, it is a bit of a limitation but I do get why it happens - Hopefully if a thief has nicked it they aren't looking at their phone or can't find the tag. You could slip it behind the headlining really as its so slim. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227
For the money though, it is well worth doing
Realistically my car is not parked anywhere dodgy nor particularly targeted by thieves - it's a nice to have.
I would suggest you "hide" the air tag somewhere pretty clever.....not because a car thief will necessarily look for one (they might), but because if they are an Apple iPhone user (quite likely), then they will be notified that "an apple air tag has been found moving with you" pretty sharpish, and hence start pulling the car apart to find/discard it, hence removing any worth!
Clever little bits of kit though, especially the nearby "find" function.
EDIT - Beat me to it!
Clever little bits of kit though, especially the nearby "find" function.
EDIT - Beat me to it!
I've got one on my ebike. I don't think it would much hinder a pro, but if a kid nicks it I figure i can chase the scrote down.
Also gives some peace of mind when away. If my ebike is still there, most of the other stuff in the garage is probably there too.
Don't have one in the car, it has it's own, i think.
Also gives some peace of mind when away. If my ebike is still there, most of the other stuff in the garage is probably there too.
Don't have one in the car, it has it's own, i think.
gotoPzero said:
IIRC you only get the "air tag warning" if you are near / in your own home.
Other wise the likes of DPD and Royal Mail staff would be getting inundated with warnings.
Nope, it will notify you anywhere if there is an airtag moving with your phone and said air tag is not registered/linked to that phone. (This happens all the time with my wife/son if they use my car, even 50 miles away from home)Other wise the likes of DPD and Royal Mail staff would be getting inundated with warnings.
Why would delivery people be getting warnings? The airtags are disabled until you activate them both physically (battery tab) and "digitally".
I suppose hiding one in a car has a few possible outcomes:
-They can't find it as they didn't get notified/hear it. Likely get the car back ok.
-They can't find it, so abandon the car leaving it with a battered interior
-They do find it, and it disappears with a battered interior
I am tempted to buy some more for other possessions.
-They can't find it as they didn't get notified/hear it. Likely get the car back ok.
-They can't find it, so abandon the car leaving it with a battered interior
-They do find it, and it disappears with a battered interior
I am tempted to buy some more for other possessions.
aparna said:
Could use a tile. Cheaper. Better speaker too. Works well enough.
They aren't really cheaper - I just had a look at the website, looks like they with the same principals but rely on the 'Tile network' rather than the Apple network. I know one person who has bought a Tile and therefore will have the app on their phone, versus probably 50% of the people I know have an iPhone.
iPads, Macs etc all pick up the signal too.
joropug said:
They aren't really cheaper - I just had a look at the website, looks like they with the same principals but rely on the 'Tile network' rather than the Apple network.
I know one person who has bought a Tile and therefore will have the app on their phone, versus probably 50% of the people I know have an iPhone.
iPads, Macs etc all pick up the signal too.
The main pro is they don't beep so better for covert ops. I know one person who has bought a Tile and therefore will have the app on their phone, versus probably 50% of the people I know have an iPhone.
iPads, Macs etc all pick up the signal too.
Tile is 20 quid from amazon.
Yes apple has more devices. But IME Tile works 'well enough'.
joropug said:
595Heaven said:
This is the flaw in the plan. If a thief is in your car and has an iPhone, after a while they will be told that an Airtag is near them. They can then search for and destroy the AirTag or inhibit it
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227
For the money though, it is well worth doing
Yes definitely, it is a bit of a limitation but I do get why it happens - Hopefully if a thief has nicked it they aren't looking at their phone or can't find the tag. You could slip it behind the headlining really as its so slim. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227
For the money though, it is well worth doing
Realistically my car is not parked anywhere dodgy nor particularly targeted by thieves - it's a nice to have.
MattyD803 said:
gotoPzero said:
IIRC you only get the "air tag warning" if you are near / in your own home.
Other wise the likes of DPD and Royal Mail staff would be getting inundated with warnings.
Why would delivery people be getting warnings? The airtags are disabled until you activate them both physically (battery tab) and "digitally".Other wise the likes of DPD and Royal Mail staff would be getting inundated with warnings.
ridds said:
That's really cool - it's a shame you can't provide the ability to track it to someone else. For instance the recipient on something high value.There was a previous thread where I came to the conclusion they are a bit s
t. It seems, that unlike all other Apple products, I can’t see the ones attached to my wife’s phone and she can’t see the ones attached to mine.
If she loses her bag with her phone in it…she is screwed. Ok, I hear you shout. Out the air tag that in her bag in my account. Well, then the needy little fkers scream every now and again because they are not with me. They also send out a message to my wife claiming I’m stalking her.
Next example. I want to track my car. Simple, this time the air tag will be with me so less likely to cry for attention. Now the car gets stolen and just at the time I need it most, it starts yelling for daddy and the thieves are alerted to it. Even if it doesn’t shout, it will tell the thieves that I’m on to them by alerting their phones.
Hmm. Not going well. Another idea was to put them in the kids bags. Problem there is, again, they will tell people I’m stalking them because I’m not there. Probably not great for my 7 year old daughter to have her teacher alerted of her dad being creepy.
Then, what happens if I’m away on business? The one in my car will scream itself to death and the ones with my kids will keep the family awake at night.
The concept is great but the implementation makes them useless. I have 3 of them sat on a counter in my kitchen and the 4th is probably with my wife. Maybe.
t. It seems, that unlike all other Apple products, I can’t see the ones attached to my wife’s phone and she can’t see the ones attached to mine. If she loses her bag with her phone in it…she is screwed. Ok, I hear you shout. Out the air tag that in her bag in my account. Well, then the needy little f
kers scream every now and again because they are not with me. They also send out a message to my wife claiming I’m stalking her. Next example. I want to track my car. Simple, this time the air tag will be with me so less likely to cry for attention. Now the car gets stolen and just at the time I need it most, it starts yelling for daddy and the thieves are alerted to it. Even if it doesn’t shout, it will tell the thieves that I’m on to them by alerting their phones.
Hmm. Not going well. Another idea was to put them in the kids bags. Problem there is, again, they will tell people I’m stalking them because I’m not there. Probably not great for my 7 year old daughter to have her teacher alerted of her dad being creepy.
Then, what happens if I’m away on business? The one in my car will scream itself to death and the ones with my kids will keep the family awake at night.
The concept is great but the implementation makes them useless. I have 3 of them sat on a counter in my kitchen and the 4th is probably with my wife. Maybe.
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